best for REAL LIFE
Reshmi Bennett spent years perfecting her craft, but enjoys a good hack, too…
‘I pay £300 for that cake, it looks amazing!’ ‘I’d someone commented on my Instagram post. ‘I’d give around £250 for a bake of that skill!’ another replied. pay £300 for that cake, it looks amazing!’ ‘I’d someone commented on my Instagram post. ‘I’d give around £250 for a bake of that skill!’ another replied.
I chuckled to myself as I scrolled through the reactions. Everyone was complimenting my new, two-tier carrot cake complete with delicious Lindt chocolate bunnies, carrot cake truffles, walnuts and sugar carrots.
I’d cheekily asked my followers how much they’d be willing to pay for the ‘masterpiece’ as I suggested it was an addition to my Anges De Sucre Bakery.
Little did they know, it was actually a few £2.25 supermarket cakes that I’d whipped together and decorated for just £10. I fessed up and realised I could probably make the world’s cheapest wedding cake!
It had all started in the Spring of 2022, when my son Xavier, six, had announced: ‘I want to bake a cake.’
Just a day earlier, as a professional baker, I’d spent eight hours in my bakery, making ombré cakes, funfetti cakes and doughnut cakes – so baking on my weekend wasn’t top of my priorities. Think of the washing up!
But I wanted Xavier to feel like we could get creative together. However, as I bake from scratch everyday for work, I was feeling a little ... lazy.
Then I had a lightbulb moment. ‘Here’s £10. Why don’t we go to the shop and see what cakes we can find? I bet we could turn them into something special,’ I suggested.
I thought it would be a great exercise in teaching him how to shop – and look at the price of items in supermarkets.
Plus, I loved that he wanted to bake cakes with me. After all, my love of cakes came after I’d spent four years working as an investment banker.
I went out on a whim and left the City after the financial crisis to follow my dream of learning to cook in Paris. In the French capital, I discovered my love of cake-making.
Using my savings, I trained in classical French cuisine in Paris at École Grégoire Ferrandi and developed my craft under Michelinstarred chefs before founding my cake business in 2011.
I went on to combine classic French cuisine techniques with flavours from around the world, and delivered a selection of hand-decorated cakes around London and Surrey.
In 2015, I started supplying cak
